Slack Wines at Woodlawn Estate & Inn Wedding by CJK Visuals

An autumn Quaker wedding at a winery in Ridge, MD

Emily and Mark live in Massachusetts, where she’s working toward her graduate degree from MIT, but they’re both originally from Maryland, so they headed home for their September wedding. Emily was a dedicated DIY bride and incorporated one of their favorite games, Scrabble, into their décor. They had a unique Quaker-style ceremony before the rain hit, and CJK Visuals captured their day!

I am pretty notorious for hating the rain and Mark is pretty notorious for loving it. And what do you know, our wedding day was the rainiest September day in Maryland by far. But I still made for a happy bride as the rain held off for our outdoor ceremony and poured when it was time to make way for the tent. We found the rain actually enhanced the romance and intimacy of the day!

My sister and I are avid DIY’ers so of course when it came for my wedding day, we let those creative juices flow. To set the theme, my sister designed an invitation suite using Mark’s and my favorite game of Scrabble, and I stamped on gold doilies to go with my love of vintage. We kept the design clean, simple, and elegant; something we hoped would translate for the day. My mother and I collected old doilies for almost a year and sewed them together into a collage for the table centerpieces. She even made a 20ft long doily runner for the head table. As for the florals, I collected milk glass until it was coming out of my ears and ordered flowers wholesale as well as from a local Mennonite flower farm, while my mother grew the lamb’s ear. My aunt and sister led the flower brigade and produced the most amazing arrangements I had ever seen. There were even some flowers that came in the wrong color, but fortuitously gave the florals a greater depth than I could have imagined!

For the weekend, we stayed at our venue, a beautiful bed and breakfast, and had an amazing time. The night before the wedding, my bridesmaids and I were making their bouquets on the dance floor under the beautiful lights of the tent when they gifted me their favorite romance novels with wonderfully personal notes for our marriage. The next day, the groomsmen went swimming off of the dock and tried everything in their power to wear out our dog, Jaffe, for the upcoming celebrations. My bridesmaids and I got ready in the main house while my sister made my bouquet and calmed me about the impending rain. Of course the sentiment didn’t stop with the bridesmaid’s gifts from the night before, rather my sister tied on a picture of my dog, Madeline, who had passed a few months earlier onto my bouquet. I also got to wear my late grandmother’s earrings and my mother in-law lent me her pearl bracelet.

We had a Quaker-style ceremony since Mark had grown up Quaker. Instead of one person officiating, each guest is considered an officiant and together the community “marries” the couple. We spoke our vows and then invited guests to speak before we exchanged rings. It allowed for some of the most heartfelt and at times funniest messages we received that day. After the ceremony, everyone at the wedding was asked to sign the wedding certificate.

The rest of the night was filled with fun and dancing. My father and a friend had built the photobooth for us and we got some great pictures. Mark decided to make the favors for the guests. He painted a picture of us from a vacation to Costa Rica and cut it down in to pieces so that each guest could take a part of us home with them. It was a hit! We ended the night slightly early and are glad we did. About the time guests would have normally left, extreme winds rushed off the water and blew over tables! I was in my cottage and only got to hear about milk glass and cakes falling, but I still like to say we went out with a bang! Though much of the wedding was DIY, our day couldn’t have been made possible without our amazing vendors! Our rental company brought another tent that I asked for just the day before the wedding and saved the photobooth! Our DJ played great music all night long and Caitlin of CJK Visuals captured our day more beautifully then we remembered it! I couldn’t have imagined a better day to marry my best friend! – Emily